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TheMidnightFrogs
TheMidnightFrogs are an amateur comedic-writing and abridging team, headed by Mugiwara Yoshi and ThornBrain. Their primary projects are their productions of Sgt Frog Abridged and Tamers Abridged, though they also make one-shots and other parody videos. The name is based on the Sgt Frog series, and because early-on in the team's lifetime they came up with a majority of their funniest material very late at night. Team Bulge Bomb is a sister group, headed by ThornBrain with MidnightFrogs voice actors BigTUnit1 and codeblackhayate. Vorhias also heads his own production team, LaserBucks Productions, which frequently includes Thorn, TheSmashBro and BigTUnit1. TheMidnightFrogs also have a Let's Play/Retsupurae channel under the name TheStrawhatNO!, now a YouTube partner channel. Members Main Staff *ThornBrain - Lead writer, Voice actor, Video editor, VA director, Site and channel manager *Mugiwara Yoshi - Lead writer (SFA1R through SFA16), Voice actor *BigTUnit1 - Voice actor, Guest Writer (SFA9 - SFA11, SFA2, SFA15), Lead writer (SFA17 onward) Honorary MidnightFrogs *LillyLivers - Voice actress, Guest writer (SFA6) *codeblackhayate - Voice actress *Revy Moonshine - Voice actress *Jpace92 - Voice actor *MrVorhias - Voice actor *King Theo - Artist, Mascot *TheSmashBro - Voice actor Voice Actors Key: * is for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged characters / ** is for Best Wishes Abridged characters *ThornBrain - Narrator, Fuyuki Hinata, Private Tamama, Corporal Giroro, Lance Corporal Dororo, Lesbo #2, Solid Snake, Lance Corporal Zoruru, Charmander*, THE WHALE*, Pichu*, Gengar*, Ash Ketchum**, Professor Oak**, James**, Mijumaru**, Tsutaja**, Zekrom**, Mamepato**, Pokedex** *Mugiwara Yoshi - Sergeant Keroro, Lesbo #1, Squirtle*, Chikorita*, Skarmory* *LillyLivers - Natsumi Hinata, Aki Hinata, Chief Medic Pururu, Momoka Nishizawa (SFA2R), Private Taruru, Delia Ketchum**, Professor Araragi**, Iris** *Revy Moonshine - Koyuki Azumaya, Asami (SFA5) *codeblackhayate - Angol Mois, Jessie** *Jpace92 - Sergeant Major Kululu *BigTUnit1 - Viper, Mop, Paul Moriyama, Lieutenant Garuru, Recruit Tororo *MrVorhias - Director (SFA8), George Albert Nishizawa (SFA12), Pikachu*, Pikachu** *TheSmashBro - HQ Guest Voice Actors *Al Vee - Kangaskhan* *xJerry64x - Giovanni**, Animator (SFA8) *1KidsEntertainment - Sumomo, Animator (SFA8) *LordMoonstone - Shooter** *MrFailGame - Mutsumi Saburo (SFA18) Former Cast and Crew *DFatman - Writer, SFA title sequence, Corporal Giroro, Mutsumi Saburo **Sacked before Episode 2R was completed. *GhostTC - Sergeant Major Kululu **Left the team near the end of November 2010. *LillyLivers - Momoka **Backup for Episode 2R. No longer VA for this character. *RenegadeFaith - Angol Mois **Removed before Episode 5. *Narusasu - Momoka Nishizawa, Alisa Southerncross **Moved to Japan after Episode 13, where her living conditions did not allow for voice acting. Has since returned to the US, so she may return in the future. Unused Voice Actors *LordMog - Originally set to be Natsumi for Episode 1R. Removed because of an inability to voice the character as wanted. *ThePS2God - Originally set to be Momoka, Omiyo and Dororo for Episode 2R. Removed because recording lines became a problem; his lines were deleted when it was found that the script did not fit the source video. *Al Vee - Set to be Momoka for Episode 2R. Removed because she was unable to record lines. *Superchang847 - Originally set to be Paul Moriyama. Removed because of his low-quality mic. Videos Sgt Frog Abridged [[Sgt Frog Abridged#Episode Listing|Main article: Sgt Frog Abridged Episode Listing]] Tamers Abridged [[Tamers Abridged#Episode Listing|Main article: Tamers Abridged Episode Listing]] One-Shots, Spin-Offs and Stand-Alone Videos *Really Shit Drawings of a Japanese Pokemon Thing by MYTB ROCK ON HOMIES - Yoshi and Thorn's parody of BMNC's MSPaint parodies of Sgt Frog, though using Pokemon instead. Makes fun of BMNC's tendency to use Japanese words in otherwise English dialogue, the use of outdated internet memes, Windows Movie Maker, and the bad voice actors who auditioned for her series. *''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged'' (June 14, 2010) - Abridging of a one-episode Pokemon special made to promote the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. Makes heavy use of the team's absurdist tendencies. Originally supposed to be uploaded before ''SFA'' Episode 2R, but SFA2R was finished well before then. Removed from YouTube but backed up on Blip. Was restored on December 1. *''Best Wishes Abridged'' (November 25, 2010) - Abridging of the first two episodes of Pokemon: Best Wishes, the then-most recent season of the Pokemon anime. Is heavily satirical of the anime and its tropes/cliches. April Fool's *'2010': Paper Abridged - Thorn records himself with his webcam folding a piece of paper, a literal "abridging". *'2011': Other People's Wedding Videos Abridged - Thorn dubs over a pastor reading a bizarre, surreal piece written by the groom at a wedding, with occasional shouting by Yoshi as audience members. *'2012': Crash Abridged - A very short, YouTube Poop-like video combining footage from the short film adaptation of the JG Ballard novel with "54321 and Rock and Roll and Go" by Japanese Dance-Rock band The Jerry Lee Phantom. *'2013': Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 1 Remastered - SFA1 is redubbed with all of the characters' voices switched. Meet the Frogs Thorn interviews the members of TheMidnightFrogs about their personal projects and involvement in the team. *Jpace92 *LillyLivers *Revy Moonshine Creator Commentaries Commentaries of SFA episodes and one-shots. *''SFA Episode 1R Commentary'' - November 9, 2010 *''SFA Episode 2R Commentary'' - November 10, 2010 *''PMDA Commentary'' - November 10, 2010 *''SFA Episode 3R Commentary'' - March 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 4 Commentary'' - March 28, 2011 *''SFA Episode 5 Commentary'' - June 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 6 Commentary'' - June 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 7 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 8 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 9 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 10 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''BWA Commentary'' - March 30, 2012 *''SFA Episode 11 Commentary'' - December 21, 2012 *''SFA Episode 12 Commentary'' - December 21, 2012 *''SFA Episode 13 Commentary'' - December 22, 2012 *''SFA Episode 14 Commentary'' - December 22, 2012 *''SFA Episode 15 Commentary'' - December 23, 2012 *''SFA Episode 16 Commentary'' - December 23, 2012 *''SFA Episode 17 Commentary'' - December 24, 2012 *''SFA Episode 18 Commentary'' - December 24, 2012 Solo Commentaries Thorn commentating the episodes solo. *''SFA1R'' - March 31, 2012 *''SFA2R'' - March 31, 2012 *''SFA3R'' - March 31, 2012 Gag Reels Videos of outtakes and bloopers are released at the halfway point and finale of every season. *''Gag Reel #1'' - First half of Season 1 (SFA episodes 1® - 5, PMDA, BWA). *''Gag Reel #2'' - Second half of Season 1 (SFA episodes 6 - 10). *''Gag Reel #3'' - First half of Season 2 (SFA episodes 1 - 3, 11 - 15) *''Gag Reel #4'' - Second half of Season 2 (SFA episodes 16-18) Boston Vlogs Thorn's video journals of trips to Boston, mainly for the Anime Boston convention. *Boston 2012: **Part 1: Arrival and Con Registration **Part 2: Anime Boston Day 1 **Part 3: Drunk Guy Sings the Classics **Part 4: Vorhias, Alicia, Lilly, and a SLUT **Part 5: One Last Road Trip (The End) *Bosto- er... Lowell 2013 Trailers/Promos In their early days, TheMidnightFrogs sometimes uploaded original promos shortly before new Abridging one-shots were completed, to announce a new Abridging project, or for their non-MidnightFrogs work. Trailers were also made for the original first two SFA episodes. *SFA Episode 1 Teaser - Dr Freud - Brief clip containing a joke from Episode 1R with a new, follow-up joke caption. It hinted at a subtle running joke involving Natsumi. Was deleted May 8, 2011. *Pikmin Let's Play Trailer - To promote the then-new Let's Play by Yoshi and Thorn, Yoshi sings his own translation of the Japanese Pikmin-based song "Ai no Uta" ("Song of Love") to footage of the game. The song ends abruptly as a team of yellow Pikmin accidentally blow themselves up, to which an aggravated Yoshi reacts, "Fuck!". *SFA Episode 2 Promo - Keroro is playing an incomprehensible board game by himself while pretending to be his crew members. The video hints at the fact that the character of Momoka had, at the time, been a constant problem, and that the team wanted the episode done as well but were unable to continue. *Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged promo - Someone very quickly and very vaguely describes the events that unfold in the video, focusing mainly on the Squirtle boy. When he is through, it is revealed that Charmander was telling the story; he asks someone behind the camera, "Doesn't that sound cool?" to which Squirtle responds, "Dude, I'm that fucking Squirtle!" ThornBrain then announces the PMDA project and its release date. *''Best Wishes Abridged promo'' - Audio-only promo for Best Wishes Abridged, aired at the end of the Oh Planet Earth podcast. It was made in the style of a radio commercial for a movie, with the narrator setting up the video and Ash Ketchum interjecting with one-liners. *Something comes tonight - Promotional trailer for the premiere of Tamers Abridged. It establishes the series' framing device of it being aired on a small TV station in the middle of nowhere, and it introduces the station's resident VJ's (voice by Thorn and Yoshi). It was the first trailer from the team for a project since Best Wishes Abridged's promo over three years earlier. Song Parodies and Originals Parodies *A Pekoponian Day in the Life - parody of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life". The music is a karaoke version of the original song. *Pretty Girl's All Mine - parody of Chris Isaak's "Pretty Girls Don't Cry". The music is performed by Thorn. *The Lonely Dance - parody of Men Without Hats' "The Safety Dance", with Thorn singing as Dororo to a karaoke version of the original song, with brief reactions by Revy Moonshine as Koyuki. *''A Christmas Special (It's special, alright)'' - features parodies of several Christmas carols and standards, as sung by various SFA characters. *The Valentine's Parody - parody of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time, with Yoshi singing to a karaoke version of the original, backed occasionally by Thorn. Originals *Stroke in the Sun - written by Thorn and Travis, performed by Thorn. Song is in an oldies/Rock & Roll style with a heavy metal bridge, inspired by The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, and Napalm Death. Unreleased *"Tamama's Titties" - A very old, pre-Episode 1R parody of The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine". The song was based on an inside joke between the team of a typo by DFatman. The song was written and primarily sung by ThornBrain, backed by Yoshi and Fatman to a karaoke version of the song. Podcast Main article: TheMidnightFrogs Podcast TheMidnightFrogs Podcast is hosted by Thorn and Yoshi, features an alternating list of TheMidnightFrogs' team members, broadcasts on Vokle or Ustream (depending on Thorn's available hardware), and is archived on MediaFire. Full details are in the podcast's main article. TheMidnightFrogs Podcast is an offshoot of the team's original podcast, Fatty Time. The team began TheMidnightFrogs Podcast when they split from DFatman. History Pre-Formation 250px|frame|border|TheMidnightFrogs' original logo by DFatman, used from January 2010 to November 2013 Before Sgt Frog Abridged, Yoshi and Thorn were random YouTubers in high school. Thorn had tried his hand at comics, fanfics, ranting, reviewing music, and making YouTube Poops, but nothing had stuck with him. Yoshi tried writing fanfics, making AMVs, and other various things, but he mostly just wanted to get out of high school. Thorn graduated high school in May 2009 and took the following year off from school before going into college, freeing up the time he would eventually devote to starting SFA. Sometime in 2009, Mugiwara Yoshi, (then going by the username SMSYoshi) became a fan of Sgt Frog and wanted to watch an abridged series of it. He found that there were no good existing abridges of it, so he decided to try his hand at making his own. That July, he requested help on a possible Sgt Frog Abridged in the UStream chat of the Wha-Chow! podcast. Among the people interested were ThornBrain, DFatman and GhostTC. Some of them exchanged Skype contacts, but nothing solid occurred. The following November, Thorn and Fatman became friends and began doing Let's Plays together. That December, Yoshi bought his first microphone and joined them, all the while beginning planning on their Sgt Frog Abridged. Thorn asked to be the third writer, to which Yoshi agreed, thus establishing the original main trio of the team, (though Thorn and Yoshi wouldn't "click" as friends or partners until the following month). That same day, they set up their first podcast, Fatty Time, and GhostTC joined up as a voice actor two weeks later. Fatman suggested naming the team "TheMidnightFrogs"; the team and account were officially founded on January 2, 2010, just shortly after deciding on the moniker. The core three put together their first audition video asking for voice actors on New Year's Day 2010, (note: almost none of the people who auditioned would stay with them for/past Episode 1). *''Other articles related to this era'': **''Tamama Tits'' **''Dorodo'' **''Kemama'' Sgt Frog Abridged - Initial Run ''Sgt Frog Abridged'' Episode 1 After a month-long period of fluctuating voice actors, during which LillyLivers, RenegadeFaith, SuperChang487, ThePS2God, and LordMog joined up (Lilly would eventually become an honorary MidnightFrog while every other user would be removed by the end of Season 1), scriptwriting began on [[Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 1R|episode 1 of SFA]]. The episode was completed and uploaded on February 16, and the series quickly began developing a fan base. The team would go on to essentially disown the episode, officially retconning it on June 24, 2011. It is now referred to as "Episode 1R" or "SFA1R", meaning "Retconned". A canonical remake was made in June 2011. Episode 2 and the split from Fatman Fatman had already written Episode 2's script while lines were being recorded, though the original draft would be rewritten by Thorn and Yoshi due to them soon finding it mediocre. Lines were recorded, but in March Thorn discovered that the script and lines did not fit with the source video. He and Yoshi wrote a third script without Fatman, though episode production would continue to be held back until June as the team searched for a voice for Momoka. The two were quickly growing tired of working with and being around Fatman. They finally split from him on April 12, two days after Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged's script was finalized. They left Fatty Time and FATLPs to him and instead founded TheMidnightFrogs Podcast and TheStrawhatNO!, respectively. The team cycled through a few Momoka voice actors for nearly four months, excluding the many they attempted to contact offering the voice, before finally asking Lilly. During the search, Thorn and Yoshi wrote an original promo for Episode 2 to keep viewers interested, though the promo would be set to "unlisted" in June 2011 (it is available for public viewing on the archive channel). The episode was completed on June 9, 2010 and uploaded the following midnight. It was received very positively, though Thorn and Yoshi would eventually disown it like with Episode 1R; it too is referred to as "Episode 2R" or "SFA2R". For a while Thorn said that if a running gag was not used past Episode 2R, it is no longer canon within SFAThornBrain, though the team eventually fully retconned the episode on June 25, 2011. A canonical remake was released that following July 29. *''Other articles related to this era: **''Category:No Longer with TheMidnightFrogs'' ''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged'' During production of Episode 2R, Thorn and Yoshi began working on a secret project between just the two of them, which would become Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged. The project sat dormant until May when SFA2R's stagnation due to Momoka brought a renewed interest in PMDA. The video was edited at the same time as, and completed shortly after, SFA2R. It was uploaded June 14 to positive reception. The video was taken down by a DMCA, though it was reuploaded on their Blip channel, then to YouTube by a separate, unknown user. It has since been reinstated. *''Other articles related to this era'': **''Team Retard'' ''SFA'' Episodes 3 and 4, Best Wishes Abridged Because Episode 3 was short it had the smoothest development of the series up to that point, with the script and editing being completed quickly and the lines being completed on time (Lilly and Ghost were the only VAs beside Thorn and Yoshi to appear). It was also well-received and is considered a milestone among the team. However due to the remakes of SFA1 and SFA2, SFA3 had a few plotholes and anachronisms that Thorn convinced Yoshi needed fixing. As such, a remaster and slight rewrite was released July 30, 2011, though the video was completed weeks earlier. Episode 4 was completed and uploaded the night of October 23, 2010 to positive reception. It introduced Revy Moonshine to the series as Koyuki Azumaya, and it signaled LillyLivers becoming an honorary member of TheMidnightFrogs. Yoshi and Thorn consider the episode to be the point where the team's abilities as abridgers began to truly click.Mugiwara YoshiThornBrain The script for a second secret project was completed on November 5, which was announced on November 20 as Best Wishes Abridged, then completed and released on Thanksgiving, November 25. BWA was arguably the most popular of any recent video of theirs, topped only by SFA Episode 1 in the number of "likes". It was taken down by Shopro numerous times through March; the team eventually decided to remove it from YouTube, and it is now a Blip-only video. End of 2010, First year anniversary, and hiatus Episode 5 began scripting on December 4, 2010. GhostTC and RenegadeFaith were removed from the voices of Kululu and Mois respectively, and Thorn brought in Jpace92 and Codeblackhayate as their new VAs. SFA5 was completed and uploaded December 19, marking the halfway point for Season 1. To celebrate the halfway mark and the Christmas season, the first Gag Reel was uploaded on Christmas Eve, followed immediately by "A Christmas Special (It's special, alright)". With Episode 5 completed and the team's first year anniversary arriving with New Years, the team decided to take a hiatus from making videos. Thorn focused his time on recording his debut album, BlackholeWhitespace, for Futures Passed Free Music. The album was completed and released on January 31. Second half of SFA Season One, SFA's First Birthday Abridgers LordMoonstone and Xerostyle announced a January 2011 Abridging contest, which caused Yoshi and Thorn to decide to end their hiatus sooner than expected. The team began production of Episode 6 without giving any hints to their fans that they were doing so, and they included LillyLivers in the scriptwriting. The scripting began on January 10th, and the episode was finished and uploaded on the 23rd, breaking Episode 5's production time-record by two days. It was the team's favourite episode through the majority of the series, and it is one of their most popular episodes. When the contest winners were finally announced on September 9, 2011, SFA6 placed in the Top 10 at 9th, out of 200 entries.Abridged Contest Winners 10-4 The episode was released less than a month before SFA's first birthday on February 16, the anniversary of the upload of Episode 1R. A video was uploaded of Keroro announcing the birthday and asking for fans to send in their favorite jokes, characters, etc. The celebratory podcast was held on February 16; it included all of the main cast members plus Vorhias. Jpace92, codeblackhayate, RevyMoonshine, and Vorhias were all inducted as honorary MidnightFrogs at the show.SFA Birthday Party Episode 7 was released on February 19 to continued acclaim, expanding on Keroro, Giroro, and Dororo's childhood together, as well as Dororo and Giroro's relationship (which would become a recurring theme for the rest of the series). After the finale of SFA, Episode 7 was voted one of Thorn's, Yoshi's, and Travis' top 3 favourite episodes alongside 11 and 17. Episode 8 followed on March 23. Yoshi and Travis still like the episode while Thorn considers it to be one of the series' low points, admitting that the script was weak, and that he and Yoshi didn't have many ideas. ''Jetters Abridged'', BigTUnit1 Joins the Writing Staff, SFA Season One finale Thorn began Jetters Abridged shortly after SFA8, a project he had been planning for since the founding of TheMidnightFrogs. He founded Team Bulge Bomb with MidnightFrogs VAs BigTUnit1 and codeblackhayate and began making episodes alongside SFA. Due to his work in Jetters Abridged and because SFA8 was comparatively weaker than the previous two episodes, BigTUnit1 was brought in to co-write Episode 9. Thorn and Yoshi were so pleased with his contributions that he became a recurring writer for SFA. The episode was written in one night and was released April 17; it confused the majority of its audience, but it was still received very positively. Episode 10, the season one finale, was released on May 27 to acclaim (and shock due to the bizarre revelations made in the episode) from fans and great satisfaction from the team.Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 10 The team officially took a break from SFA until July. Episode Remakes, Season 2, Second Hiatus In actuality, the team remade Episode 1 a month early without their fans' awareness. Because SFA1R was retconned, the new SFA1 completely replaced it in the series' timeline and continuity. They then remade Episode 2 and Episode 3 in July, which all followed suit in replacing their originals in the continuity. Though the remakes were generally a hit with the fans and viewers, they did cause a small split in the fanbase with a minority preferring the originals. The remakes are currently the three most disliked episodes, and SFA3 gathered more dislikes alone than any other video on TheMidnightFrogs' channel.Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 1Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 2Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 3 Since then, the originals have largely been forgotten and the remakes better liked. Season 2 premiered on August 25, 2011 with Episode 11, which introduced Pururu and continued from where Episode 10 left off plot-wise and character-wise. It is the first episode to directly examine the series' recurring themes of sexual orientation, Thorn himself coming out during production as a bisexual transvestite (he has since altered this to androgynous pansexual). The episode quickly gained high marks from viewers and fans, much higher than the remakes had recieved.Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 11 Same for Episode 12, which expanded on Kululu's condition from Episode 11, Episode 13, which served as a Halloween special and introduced Alisa Southerncross and Black Nebula (the team agree that SFA13 is the series' worst episode), and Episode 14, which gave some backstory to Koyuki and Dororo. Episode 15 was released Christmas Eve, and was followed by the third Gag Reel. Due to exhaustion with the series and some dissatisfaction with the season, Thorn and Yoshi put the series and abridging in general on an indefinite hiatus after SFA15. The two spent the next two months focusing on their Let's Plays. They would eventually return to the series in March 2012, writing Episode 16, which would be released after the April trip to Boston for the Anime Boston convention. Yoshi Steps Down, Series Finale Yoshi confirmed on the following podcast that he was stepping down as writer of SFA, giving creative control of the series to Thorn, though he would still remain as Keroro's voice actor. Some of Yoshi's material still remained in the script for SFA17, and a sudden spark of motivation to complete the series on a high note brought Yoshi back to script SFA18. Though Thorn said for a while that he would continue SFA in a different form (shorts, more song parodies, the movies), exhaustion and loss of motivation led him to make SFA18 the final episode in the entire series. The series lived on briefly in the Ask GiroDoro audio blog. Thorn intended to move TheMidnightFrogs on to a Digimon Tamers series, but this idea was put on indefinite hiatus after little to no progress was made. (It would later be revived in October 2013) Thorn made the scriptwriting sessions for all of SFA, plus PMDA and BWA, available free to download from his blog. The infamous Podcast post-shows, one of which birthed Mop, are also available to download. SFA - Revival onward Revival Announcement 250px|thumb|TheMidnightFrogs current logo by Teddy, November 2013 - present An SFA reboot was announced on February 14, Sgt Frog Abridged: Reset, with Thorn providing a clarification video the day after: he would retain creative control and write the series with whoever was available at the time. Yoshi would not be returning as a writer, though he and the rest of the cast would keep their voice acting roles. The Reset special was released March 30, and the SFA Returns podcast further revealed details for Season 3. TheSmashBro was also inducted as an honorary MidnightFrog during the show. Episode 19 followed that August to an enthusiastic reception, and the Tamers Abridged project was revived in October 2013. The team commissioned a new logo from team artist Teddy shortly after Podcast 33, Sonic!, with Teddy featuring as the official mascot. Thorn also released his second album, Nobody Cares Unless You're Pretty or Dying, on December 24. Tamers Abridged - Episode 1 was released on January 8, 2014, and Jetters Abridged - Episode 6 will follow in February. SFA Episode 20 is set for March. References Category:Team category:TheMidnightFrogs